ARFE, Juan de

Spanish goldsmith, sculptor and writer, grandson of Enrique de Arfe. He spent his early life in Valladolid, where his father, Antonio de Arfe (c. 1510–75), was active as a silversmith and where Juan himself married in 1562. Juan carried out works in both Valladolid and Avila.

He moved to Seville in 1580, when he was commissioned to make the custodia (portable tabernacle) for Seville Cathedral (sacristy; in situ). Signed and dated, it was completed in 1587. It was altered in the 17th century, but its original form is known from de Arfe’s description of it in Descripción de la traça y ornato de la custodia de plata de la Sancta Iglesia de Sevilla (1587), accompanied by engravings. Its decoration conforms iconographically to the programme drawn up by Canon Francisco Pacheco (1540–99); this is apparent in the pictorial reliefs showing figures and landscape settings. De varia commensuración (Seville, 1585), an influential work that was widely circulated, reflected de Arfe’s aesthetic ideas as well as his theoretical and practical knowledge. It covers both the elements of geometry and the anatomical proportions needed by an artist. Juan de Arfe advocated the more stylized proportions introduced by Gaspar Becerra and Alonso Berruguete. The book also discusses the depiction of animals, as well as of architecture and the way it is related to the art of the goldsmith.